Europe's Getting a Kick Out of the GOP Field

Ever wonder what our nation looks like to folks from afar? Here we look at how a uniquely American story--the kind of news we can have trouble explaining even to ourselves--is being told overseas.

Checking in on how Europe is covering the race for the GOP nomination, it turns out our media brethren across the Atlantic are just as focused on the candidates' gaffes and blunders as we are. Here's a survey of the rather merciless drubbing the GOP field is receiving this week.

Germany

Google Translation: "Club of liars, demagogues, ignorant"

Fresh off the presses from the German weekly Der Spiegel, the magazine's correspondent Marc Pitzke pens a primary retrospective laced with acid. The Google translation is a little clunky but if you didn't get the point from the headline, the lede should clears things up: "Africa is a country. In Libya, the Taliban rule. Muslims are terrorists, immigrants are usually criminal, Occupy protesters always dirty. And women who feel sexually harassed, should please not nice such a fuss.Welcome to the wonderful world of the U.S. Republicans. Or rather: the Distortion World."

France

Google Translation: "Top 8: The best of the worst blunders of Republican candidates"

This roundup, published in France's Metro earlier today, catalogs the various gaffes GOP candidates have made from MIchele Bachmann's promise to close America's embassy in Iran (we don't have one there), to Herman Cain's Libya moment of silence, to Rick Perry's voting age mixup. The French had a field day with this one.

Google Translation: "Newt Gingrich, finally a real villain"

Published yesterday in one of France's largest newspapers Le Monde, the Gingrich takedown is a rather straightforward hit piece, chronicling the former House speaker's ethics violations in the '90s, his arguably inflated ego and ticking off his failed marriages.

Sweden

Google Translation: "Rick Perry's brain melt"

Catching up to Perry's bumbling debate performance, Sweden's Expressen recalled the moment Perry couldn't remember the third government agency he wanted to destroy. "It began well. Ministry of Trade. Ministry of Education. But then it stops ... It was actually hard to watch," wrote the newspaper.

Poland

Google Translation: "Rivals are still too weak for Obama"

In Poland's Polska, Catherine Philp writes somewhat sympathetically about the Republican Party's difficulty finding a candidate who can beat President Obama. Still, the overall assessment is similar to other European accounts. "Republicans are not able to emerge reasonable candidate. What's worse - those who fight for the nomination, they commit the same blunder."

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